VIA DEGLI ARIANI, 1 – 48100 RAVENNA – ITALIA – TEL. 0544 936711 – FAX 0544 936716 2009 MOISA Association Annual Meeting report 

The annual assembly of the members took place on Thursday, October 1st 2009 at 8.35 pm, in the Sala Conferenze of the Dipartimento di Storie e Metodi per la Conservazione dei Beni Culturali, Università di Bologna (Ravenna, Italy, via degli Ariani, 1). It was chaired by Andrew Barker and Donatella Restani; Pauline LeVen took the minutes. 

1. Attendance/Quorum: 

27 members were in attendance (including 2 members of the Executive Committee, Alan Bowen and David Creese, who attended by Skype). 

Andrew Barker started by thanking the members in attendance and Donatella for the great work she had done for the Moisa Epichorios conference. 

2. Communications from the Executive Committee: 

a) membership and subscription/mailing list 

David Creese reported on the current status of 2009 memberships and subscription/mailing list. As of 30 September 2009, the Society has 65 members in good standing. The MOISA general e-mail list currently has 75 subscribers (there were ten 2008 members who had not yet paid fees for 2009 before the meeting, but this number went down to 7 during the meeting). Three members had already paid fees for 2010. 

Since 30 October 2008 (MOISA’s last annual meeting), the list has been used to send 26 messages to the Society’s members (an increase compared to the 34 messages sent between 2006 and 2008). David Creese was happy to report that problems with the delivery of messages (especially ‘greylisting’ by servers hosting members’ e-mail addresses) were much fewer in 2008-9 than in 2007-8. All in all, MOISA members use the the email list as an efficient way to communicate when they need it, and there are no major problems to report. 

b) news from the Secretary/Treasurer 

Eleonora Rocconi reported that as of 8/31/2009 the current total balance of MOISA was € 4411 (€ 3643,71 EUR in postal account, € 767,90 EUR in PayPal account). For logistic needs, the bank management has been displaced from Ravenna to Cremona in February 2009. 

On 01/01/2009, 07/17/2009 and 08/31/2009 the Society paid a total of $370 CAD (= € 238,91 EUR) to Geoffrey Piersol as payment for his work on the web-site from January to August 2009. 

As of 8/31/2009, the Society has no outstanding debts or financial liabilities, except for the credits to Alan C. Bowen and David Creese already mentioned in the report of last year, which will be applied against the annual membership fees that each of them is to pay over the next few years. 

c) news from the Subcommittee on Electronic Communications. VIA DEGLI ARIANI, 1 – 48100 RAVENNA – ITALIA – TEL. 0544 936711 – FAX 0544 936716 

Alan Bowen reported that the latest version of the directory of members was online and that the new, enhanced, website was progressing. (Alan explained that the new website will be moved to another subscriber and will not depend as much on the University of Toronto as it did in the past). 

Asked by Donatella to give an approximate date for the launching of the new website‟s online testing, Alan reported that he was hopeful it would happen within the next month. 

Alan Bowen stressed the need for members to create their profile page, to encourage social networking. 

3. Next Annual meeting of MOISA: 

A proposal was generously made by Prof. Daniela Castaldo (and Prof. Pietro Giannini) for the fourth Annual Meeting of MOISA to be held in Lecce (Italy), at the Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e di Scienze Filosofiche, in collaboration with the Dipartimento dei Beni, delle Arti e della Storia, of the Università del Salento. The suggested title is Poesia, musica e agoni nella Grecia antica; the proposed dates for the 3-day conference are October 28-30, 2010. 

Roberto Melini suggested including “nella Grecia e Roma antica”; the suggestion was welcomed, and attendees approved of the proposal, leaving however the Scientific Committee free to choose the final subject of the meeting. 

4. Publications: 

a) The committee happily announced the publication of the first Annual Meeting of MOISA, 2006 (Il sapere musicale e i suoi contesti da Teofrasto a Claudio Tolemeo, Longo, Ravenna 2009); 

b) Eleonora Rocconi reported that the electronic publication of the second Annual Meeting of MOISA, 2008 was in progress and would appear, by the end of 2009, in Philomusica on-line 7, 2008), with an option to be „printed on demand‟. 

c) The question of the venue for the forthcoming series of MOISA publications was raised. Donatella Restani welcomed suggestions but warned that all the required conditions (e.g. finding an editorial board) were not met yet and that some more thinking was required. Before a satisfying solution is found for forthcoming publications, Philomusica on-line will be the venue for publication. 

d) It was reported that the bibliography project De musicis had not moved much since the report of the last meeting and a strong need was felt to get moving with the bibliography project - a potentially very important tool for members. Two possibilities were raised: either that members themselves contribute entries to De musicis for their own publications, or that the bibliography be compiled by somebody else. E. Rocconi suggested hiring a student for three months to compile a bibliography for 2005-2009; after that date, and once a good database is constituted, members would be able to contribute their own entries. Stefan Hagel warned against using pdf format, less useful to search and use than commonly used softwares such as Zotero or EndNote. VIA DEGLI ARIANI, 1 – 48100 RAVENNA – ITALIA – TEL. 0544 936711 – FAX 0544 936716 

5. New Business: 

a) Chiara Martinelli brought the assembly up to date on the LEMMA (Lessico della Musica nel Mondo antico) project; Donatella established that MOISA was interested in supporting the project and asked about the best way to begin. To Stelios Psaroudakis‟s question about the format / content of the entry, Stefan Hagel recommended the format of short, highly interlinked chapters, presenting the literary and iconographic evidence along with a bibliography, as well as some short chapters on interpretive issues. 

Alan Bowen recommended starting to work on a prototype by the end of the month, and Eleonora Rocconi suggested beginning by a lexicon of musical instruments. Luisa Zanoncelli volunteered to help work on an entry. 

Roberto Melini expressed worries about the uniformity of scholarly standards across entries: the SNS project about Mediterranean forms of writing (Mnamon. Portale delle antiche scritture nel Mediterraneo, see http://lila.sns.it/mnamon) was displayed to the assembly as an example to be emulated. 

b) It was reported that some institutional partners for the LEMMA project had already been identified: Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, the Austrian Academy in Vienna and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. They will be the institutions linked to the application for a European grant destined to finance the project (the application for the grant will be filed in 2010, and the application material might serve as a draft to apply for an American NEH grant in 2011). Luisa Zanoncelli inquired about the option to have private partners; Massimo Raffa suggested Fondazione Flaminia. 

c) other news: 

Emiliano Li Castro brought the assembly up to date on the ASTRA project (a generously funded 1.5-year research project on music). He expressed strong reservations about the honesty of ASTRA‟s work ethics and motives; he suggested that MOISA should write a joint communiqué stating that the Society disagrees with the content and methods of research used by ASTRA. Stefan Hagel questioned whether ASTRA should be made aware of MOISA‟s activities before being confronted with the communiqué. 

Alan Bowen recommended that the executive committee, after getting better acquainted with the activities of ASTRA, write a proposal destined to be circulated to the list of MOISA members to be voted on, and then sent to the media to express MOISA‟s disagreement with ASTRA‟s methods. 

6. Vote to adopt Bowen’s motion: 

As the last item on the agenda, Donatella Restani had the pleasure to ask the assembly to vote to adopt Bowen‟s motion (sent through the mailing list to the members on 08/31/2009) 

A. THAT, in grateful recognition of his founding MOISA and of his many contributions to the evolution of the Society, Andrew Barker, the current President of the Executive Committee be appointed as a permanent member of the Executive Committee of MOISA with the title of Founding President, that he take this office at the Annual Meeting in 2011, that the prerogatives and duties of the Founding President be the same as those of any elected member of the Executive Committee of MOISA, and that thereafter the position of Founding President not be held in conjunction with the tenure of any other position on the Executive Committee. VIA DEGLI ARIANI, 1 – 48100 RAVENNA – ITALIA – TEL. 0544 936711 – FAX 0544 936716 

B. THAT, in order to establish a due measure of continuity in the governance of MOISA, the President of the Executive Committee just prior to the Annual Meeting in 2014, or any member of the out-going Executive Committee duly designated by that Committee at that time, take the position of Past-President in the incoming Executive Committee of MOISA; that he take this office at the Annual Meeting in 2014; that the Past-President have the same the prerogatives and duties as those of the newly elected members of the Executive Committee of MOISA; and that the term of office of Past-President end after three years with the election of the next Executive Committee. 

B1. THAT, in order to ensure that there is an odd number of members sitting on the Executive Board at all times, the Assembly elect six (6) members to the Executive Board at the Annual Meeting in 2011. 

C.THAT, in order to maintain continuity in the governance of MOISA, after 2014 the President of the Executive Committee just prior to the Annual Meeting of an electoral year, or any member of the out-going Executive Committee duly designated by that Committee, take the position of Past-President in the incoming Executive Committee of MOISA; that he take this office at the Annual Meeting in that electoral year; that the Past-President have the same the prerogatives and duties as those of the newly elected members of the Executive Committee of MOISA; and that the term of office of Past-President end after three years with the election of the next Executive Committee. 

C1. THAT, in order to ensure that there is a odd number of members sitting on the Executive Board at all times, the Assembly elect five (5) members to the Executive Board at the Annual Meeting in 2014. 

C2. THAT, in order to ensure that there is a odd number of members sitting on the Executive Board at all times, when the Founding President retires from the Executive Committee, the Assembly thereafter elect six (6) members to the Executive Board at Annual Meetings whenever there is an election of the Executive Committee. 

The assembly voted (26 votes, 1 abstention among the attending members: 20 votes in favour of the motion had already been received by the Secretary in the month between the post of the motion and the meeting) and enthusiastically MOISA approved the motion. Andrew Barker expressed his heartfelt thanks, stated that MOISA had far surpassed the modest expectations he had when first dreaming up the society fifteen years ago, and accepted to be the society‟s “decorative grand-father.” 

After many rounds of applause, the meeting was adjourned at 10.32pm. 

The Keeper of the Minutes The President/The Vice-President 

Pauline LeVen Andrew Barker/Donatella Restani